1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-functional therapeutic workstation which can simulate a multitude of job tasks. The workstation is ideally suited for patients recovery from traumatic hand injury, upper extremity injury, back or lower extremity injury, traumatic brain injury or other neurological disorders. More specifically, the multi-functional workstation kit consists of five panel designs with right angle brackets, nuts and bolts that can be assembled into several modules. Hand tools must be used to assemble most of the nuts, bolts, washers and screws.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists a need for a therapeutic device for patients that have suffered traumatic injuries or illness and that have a need to exercise the healing limbs or neurological pathways so that the patient may be rehabilitated and resume normal activities. These injuries may, for instance, include traumatic hand injury, upper extremity injury, back or lower extremity injury, traumatic brain injury or other neurological and medical disorders.
In an earlier effort to meet this need, U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,351 describes a method and device in which the patient is required to perform manual operations within a visually obscured enclosure. Partitions are provided within the enclosure to simulate the performance of mechanical operations such as the placing and tightening of nuts on bolts inside the enclosure. However, this patent only addresses fine motor skills such as placing nuts on bolts and does not address the rehabilitation of those muscles which control other ranges of motions. Indeed, the device is limited to fine motor control of these muscles of the hand.
What is needed is a device that is versatile and that can be used to rehabilitate patients suffering from a wide variety of impairments. For instance, the device should be capable of inducing the patient to exercise the complete upper extremity range of motion, should encourage muscle strengthening and muscle endurance while also providing tool handling/prehension tasks with either low or high torque activity. Further, the device should allow the manipulation of tools to exercise those muscles that control fine motor coordination as well as gross motor coordination. It is also desirable that the device could be juxtaposed relative to the patient so as to exercise sitting and standing tolerance, kneeling, bending and squatting tolerance, as well as supine, side lying or overhead work tolerance. Furthermore, the device should also be suitable for simulation of working in a confined space and should exercise vertical, horizontal and diagonal reaching tolerances. It is furthermore desirable that the therapeutic device should not only address physical activities but should also stimulate cognitive, perceptual motor skills such as following directions, problem solving and abstract thinking, redevelopment of organizational skills, extending attention span, replication of detail and design copy, understanding spatial relationships, discriminating between the left side and the right side, visual sequencing, motor planning, sorting and sequencing of tasks, and the like. Therefore, it is desirable that the therapeutic device be able to rehabilitate both physical muscular activity as well as neurological activities, such as cognitive perceptual motor skills, and should simulate job tasks.